NAS Revisited: The ReadyNAS Remainder

September 29, 2005

Continued from 'NAS Revisited: More On ReadyNAS'….

"The read behavior is just as you guessed; we do a fair amount of caching (also into our system memory), and as the buffers run down, you get the slower transfer rate of the rotating media.The only thing that was giving me pause was the amount of the drop-off, but the engineers said that is about right. As for the write performance, the network utilization, however, is low…turns out there was a bug in that we handled <2 GB files properly, but defaulted to a low performance setting for files >2GB. You should be getting over 12.5% utilization on a Gigabit Network, with Jumbo frame support.I will have to pass the updated firmware to you once it gets tested and released."

Next steps? After I get updated firmware from Infrant (right now I'm running firmware v2.00c1p3, by the way), I plan to re-run my tests to confirm Sam's predicted performance gain. I also plan to do more elaborate testing of both the TeraStation and ReadyNAS, along with any other NASs that might appear in my home office lab. I'll use tools such as Iometer and IOzone that let me easily comprehend a breadth of file sizes, along with numerous read-vs-write proportion, number-of-simultaneous transaction and number-of-simultaneous-client scenarios.

After that? I hope to expand my testing beyond the NAS itself to the bigger-picture network infrastructure that comprehends both the media storage (NAS) and playback devices. Specifically, I have three devices in-house that at least theoretically support the TeraStation and ReadyNAS's uPNP server capabilities; a Buffalo Technologies LinkTheater, an IO-DATA AVeL LinkPlayer2, and a Roku PhotoBridge HD. The first two products combine the functions of a progressive-scan, up-scaling DVD player and a network media player capable of playing back standard and high definition DivX and Windows Media Video streams.

IO-DATA's device also claims to handle 720p MPEG-2 transport streams (such as those originating from my JVC HDV camcorder), as does the PhotoBridge HD (via its latest beta firmware). And I'm particularly anxious to try out JVC's upcoming ProHD player, mentioned in my early August optical storage article. Designed by IO-DATA, it plays high definition video not only streamed over the network, but also stored on red laser DVDs. Take that, Blu-Ray and HD DVD!

And, of course, I always welcome your feedback. Any comments?

Posted by Brian Dipert on September 29, 2005 | Comments (8)

April 25, 2006

In response to: NAS Revisited: The ReadyNAS Remainder
Victor commented:

Thanks a lot for sharing this review. It was very helpful and an easy read for someone new to the technology.

December 21, 2005

In response to: NAS Revisited: The ReadyNAS Remainder
Fikri commented:

Thanks for the review and all the info. I am in the process of buying a ReadyNAS X6 and I need to get the best out of it, I am refering to the Jumbo Frames features. Can you tell me what is the product name of you Gigabit switch and also any other info regarding where to find Jumbo Frames capable NIC adaptors. THANKS

December 12, 2005

In response to: NAS Revisited: The ReadyNAS Remainder
andrew commented:

Excellent review, I have been researching the readynas for weeks and have come to the conclusion that it is the one to buy. I was also impressed when I spoke to the compant (Infrant).

November 25, 2005

In response to: NAS Revisited: The ReadyNAS Remainder
Brian Dipert commented:

My pleasure, Vince; thanks for the flattering feedback!

November 25, 2005

In response to: NAS Revisited: The ReadyNAS Remainder
vince commented:

Nice test. It s not only the one i have seen on the net for nas.But It's the one which finally decided me to buy a nas and especialy the x6. First test, i will done is the upnp media streaming with the new version linux Geexbox. I will come back to say the result. thanks for the very understanding explanation.

November 10, 2005

In response to: NAS Revisited: The ReadyNAS Remainder
Brian DIpert commented:

The x6 implements an Infrant-proprietary RAID variant which, as you say, enables one to add drives without needing to delete and rebuild volumes. In an email sent to me roughly two months ago, as I began my benchmarking work, the company's PR rep indicated that between the two product flavours, there's 'minimal performance difference....maybe slightly faster reads for the 600 and slightly faster writes for x6'. Hope this helps

November 10, 2005

In response to: NAS Revisited: The ReadyNAS Remainder
kevin commented:

so the only difference between the 600 and the x6 is that the x6 allows you to add drives a little easier without the chance of data corruption? i'm really interested in getting a 1tb nas and was going to go with the terastation since it was the only one i knew of and it was fairly priced. however, i've discovered the readynas now and read a few reviews, and it seems the readynas is a better unit even though it may be pricier. so now i'm considering the readynas but don't quite know which to get - the 600 or the x6. there was a review that was named "600 vs. x6" somewhere but the conclusion didn't seem to pick one over the other, just that the readynas was a good nas in general. so i'm mainly unsure about which is a "better" unit to go with.

October 28, 2005

In response to: NAS Revisited: The ReadyNAS Remainder
sdsdv10 commented:

Thanks for the nice review. Please keeps us updated and I am considering one of these for my home network for video streaming.

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